Example 1: Select one column

To select a single column, we specify the column name between SELECT and FROM as follows:

SELECT Store_Name FROM Store_Information;

Result:

Store_Name

Los Angeles

San Diego

Los Angeles

Boston

Example 2: Select multiple columns

We can use the SELECT statement to retrieve more than one column. To select Store_Name and Sales columns from Store_Information, we use the following SQL:

SELECT Store_Name, Sales FROM Store_Information;

Result:

Store_Name

Sales

Los Angeles

1500

San Diego

250

Los Angeles

300

Boston

700

Example 3: Select all columns

There are two ways to select all columns from a table. The first is to list the column name of each column. The second, and the easier, way is to use the symbol *. For example, to select all columns from Store_Information, we issue the following SQL:

SELECT * FROM Store_Information;

Result:

Store_Name

Sales

Txn_Date

Los Angeles

1500

Jan-05-1999

San Diego

250

Jan-07-1999

Los Angeles

300

Jan-08-1999

Boston

700

Jan-08-1999

Exercises

For these exercises, assume we have a table called Users with the following columns:

Table Users

Column Name

First_Name

Last_Name

Birth_Date

Gender

Date_Joined

1. Which of the following SQL statement is incorrect? (There can be more than one answer)
a) SELECT * FROM Users;
b) SELECT First_Name, Gender, Last_Name FROM Users;
c) SELECT First_Name, Last_Name Users;
d) SELECT All FROM Users;

2. (True Or False) In SQL, the order of the columns in a SELECT statement must be the same as the order of the columns in the underlying table. For example, in the table Users, you must select First_Name before Last_Name.

3. (True Or False) The following two SQL statements are equivalent:
a) Select * From Users;
b) SELECT * FROM Users;

1. c), d).

2. False. The order of columns in a table has no relationship to the order of columns in a SELECT statement.